Dams are massive barriers built across rivers and streams to confine and utilize the flow of water for human purposes such as irrigation and generation of hydroelectricity. This confinement of water creates lakes or reservoirs.
The first known dam was built in 2900 B.C. across the Nile River to protect the city of Memphis from flooding. Dam build was continued into the time of the Roman empire, after which dam construction was literally lost until the 1800s. Dams are a structure also seen in nature - beavers build dams to keep the water deep enough to cover the openings to their homes, protecting them from predators.
Reasons to build a dam:
generation of hydroelectricity
irrigation. These are often diversion dams, which stop a river’s natural course so that water can be sent off to a different place.
control flooding. These are called detention dams, which are constructed to either stop or slow the amount of water in a river.
According to Patrick McCully, campaigns director of the International Rivers Network, over 800,000 dams have been constructed worldwide for drinking water, flood control, hydropower, irrigation, navigation, and water storage. But since the 1950s, the peak of the big dam era, perceptions of dams and dam building have changed.
Excerpted from http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/arch374/winter2001/dbiggs/what.html
Conducting the town meeting
You and your partner are to decide the answer to the question, “Will the removal of the two dams on the Shawsheen River be a positive action for the Town of Andover”
I: Creating Your Role
You and a partner will be assigned a role as a "stake-holer". Based on that description, you will create an identity (you can use your own name) of a person that would believe what the description says. Each parnter will be her/his own character; during the Town Meeting, you will work together to get your point of view across. You do not need to agree 100%, with your partner, but you should agree on fundamentals.
Use the following questions as a guide to creating your identity.
What are the gender, age and education of your assigned stakeholder?
What opinion do they have?
What data do they have to support this opinion?
What data do they have to refute this opinion?
Is your stakeholder a member of the Andover community?
What is their monetary interest?
What is their personal interest?
What is their environmental interest?
II: Preparing to Present Your Position (15 minutes)
You and your partner are to prepare a one-minute opening statement responding to the question, “Will the removal of the two dams on the Shawsheen River be a positive action for the Town of Andover?” One member of your group will give your statement at the beginning of the meeting.
In order to prepare your position, you should examine the documents posted to the Wiki and our textbook. You may flesh out the information you learned from these resources, and disagree with any opinions you find; you may not contradict any actual facts.
III: The Town Meeting (40 minutes)
Listen to each other’s opening statements; take notes on arguments or ideas that your character would particularly agree or disagree with.
After all of the opening statements have been made, the discussion will be open. Raise your hand and jump in! It is your job to convince others in the room of your point of view. Everybody in the group should speak at least once.
Statements or questions may be addressed to particular individuals in the class in response to either their opening statements or comments made during discussion (Example: “You said that you are in favor of the dam removal, but what about...”). It is acceptable to disagree with ideas expressed but it is not acceptable to attack the person who makes the statement or expresses the idea.
IV: The Comment period (10 minutes)
The Town Council will then have 2 minutes to ask relevant clarifying questions to aid in their decision making process. Each member of the council will ask a minimum of 2 questions. All member of the council will take notes during the presentation and during the comment period. At the end of all presentations, members of the Town Council will confer and discuss their opinion. They will then post their group decision to the Wiki by 7:45 the next day.
V: Town Council Presentation (10 minutes)
On day two the Town Council will present their decision based on the prior days discussion. All stakeholders will take notes as the council presents their opinion.
VI: The Vote (5 minutes)
At the end of the presentation, we’ll take a vote on the Council’s statement. The teacher will facilitate the vote. Students who agree with the Council’s opinion should raise their hands first. Students who do not agree with the Council’s opinion should raise their hands second. The majority of the votes will determine the decision.
V: After the Vote:
You will write an editorial to Andover Townsman or The Andover Patch newspapers, or another relevant newspaper. The editorial will express your position on the Council’s decision. You may or may not take the view of your assigned stakeholder. In your editorial, you should use specific evidence from the resources you were provided with and/or found on your own. You should also include why they chose to write to the newspaper they selected. These will be posted to the Wiki by class four.
New England District is responsible for managing the Corps' civil works and military program responsibilities in a 66,000-square-mile region encompassing the six New England states east of the Lake Champlain drainage basin.
The District employs about 500 professional civilian employees, with several military officers serving in key management positions. Seventy-five percent of the staff is stationed at the Concord, Mass., headquarters, while the others serve at Corps projets and area offices throughout the region.
The missions of the New England District are many and varied. They include:
Environmental restoration and stewardship
Flood damage reduction
Natural resource and recreation management
Streambank and shoreline protection
Navigation improvements and maintenance
Disaster assistance
Regulatory program
Engineering and construction management support to other agencies
The SRWA is a non-profit, all volunteer organization with a mission to protect, restore, and enjoy the Shawsheen River and its watershed. We host a wide range of events all year round. http://www.shawsheen.org/
Inter-Fluve, Inc. is an environmental engineering firm that specializes in sustainable design, restoration and construction of river, lake, wetland, dam removal, and aquatic ecosystems.
Since 1983, we have integrated natural sciences with water resources engineering to create long term sustainable design solutions for stream and river restoration. Our design approach assesses natural and man-made conditions to provide a balance between human use and natural habitat. We assist municipal agencies, non-profit organizations, private land owners, and land developers with watershed scale planning and with design and restoration of urban, rural and wild rivers, streams and floodplains. With planning and analysis, we provide design-build and complete design-bid-build engineering services through construction oversight and performance monitoring. http://www.interfluve.com/appliedriverrestoration
Marland House
At Atria Marland Place, you’ll find a comfortable and spacious senior living community that's committed to quality. Conveniently located within 45 minutes of Boston, Massachusetts, Atria Marland Place offers residents the enjoyment of the city with the quaintness of a tight-knit community. A full social calendar provides a variety of events and entertainment opportunities, including visits to local attractions, museums, theaters and more, all of which enable a more fulfilling retirement living experience.
The luxurious environment of Atria Marland Place generates a retirement living community of elegance and sophistication. Gorgeous interior rooms work in tandem with beautiful landscaping to create a lovely assisted living setting superior to Massachusetts’ other independent living communities. http://www.atriaseniorliving.com/atria-marland-place-andover-ma.aspx?CommunityNumber=10736
Audubon Society
Mass Audubon works to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and wildlife. Together with more than 100,000 members, we care for 34,000 acres of conservation land, provide educational programs for 225,000 children and adults annually, and advocate for sound environmental policies at local, state, and federal levels. Mass Audubon's mission and actions have expanded since our beginning in 1896 when our founders set out to stop the slaughter of birds for use on women's fashions. Today we are the largest conservation organization in New England. Our statewide network of wildlife sanctuaries, in 90 Massachusetts communities, welcomes visitors of all ages and serves as the base for our work. To support these important efforts, call 800-AUDUBON (283-8266) or visit www.massaudubon.org.
Division of Fisheries Wildlife and Law Enforcement - Division of Ecological Restoration
The mission of the Division of Ecological Restoration is to restore and protect the Commonwealth’s rivers, wetlands and watersheds for the benefit of people and the environment
In Massachusetts, the public has the right to boat, fish, and fowl in navigable waters.1) Even in non-navigable waters, the public still retains the right to “passage up and down the stream in boats or other craft, for purposes of business, convenience, or pleasure.”2) Navigable waters are those waters where the tide ebbs and flows and non-navigable waters are those waters above the ebbing and flowing of the tide.3)
The presence, condition, and numbers of the types of fish, insects, algae, plants and other aquatic life provide accurate information about the health of freshwater, coastal and marine waters.
Biological assessments evaluate the condition of a water body using direct measurements of the resident biota in surface waters and integrate the cumulative impacts of chemical, physical, and biological stressors on aquatic life (see Using Biological Data as Indicators of Water Quality (PDF)(38pp, 237K, About PDF ). http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/index.html
Mrs. H. Citizen land abutter
My property values are dependant on the quality of the river. My land abuts the river currently. The removal of the dam will reduce my property value
Dr. Joe Schmoe the Consultans: Dam Removal and River Restoration Issues
The following is a list of consultants that have some experience with the issue of dam removal. Listed firms have been added at their request or because they have completed a dam removal project known by DES. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list. DES does not intend to imply a certification of those on this list, nor for the work they may perform. This list is meant to provide a resource to dam owners that would like to remove a dam and restore a river to its natural condition. Firms are listed in alphabetical order.http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/dam/damremoval/consultants.htm
Ms. Moneybags the Economist
By the time the United States declared its independence from Britain, dams were already being built in the fledgling nation. Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt once remarked that since that time "on average, we have constructed one dam every day." (Heinz Center 2002) There are currently more than 76,000 dams with a height of six feet or more in the U.S., with a combined capacity sufficient to hold almost a full year's runoff. Many of these dams have already begun to deteriorate, and are of limited economic value and questionable safety. In the coming decades, the country will face a large number of decisions about the repair, removal, or replacement of aging dams (Heinz Center 2002). http://www.elwhainfo.org/elwha-river-watershed/dam-removal/decisions-remove-dams/economics-dam-removal
Adria Elskus, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and the USGS Fishery Toxicologist for the Eastern Region
DAMS:
Dams are massive barriers built across rivers and streams to confine and utilize the flow of water for human purposes such as irrigation and generation of hydroelectricity. This confinement of water creates lakes or reservoirs.The first known dam was built in 2900 B.C. across the Nile River to protect the city of Memphis from flooding. Dam build was continued into the time of the Roman empire, after which dam construction was literally lost until the 1800s. Dams are a structure also seen in nature - beavers build dams to keep the water deep enough to cover the openings to their homes, protecting them from predators.
Reasons to build a dam:
According to Patrick McCully, campaigns director of the International Rivers Network, over 800,000 dams have been constructed worldwide for drinking water, flood control, hydropower, irrigation, navigation, and water storage. But since the 1950s, the peak of the big dam era, perceptions of dams and dam building have changed.
Excerpted from http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/arch374/winter2001/dbiggs/what.html
Conducting the town meetingYou and your partner are to decide the answer to the question, “Will the removal of the two dams on the Shawsheen River be a positive action for the Town of Andover”
I: Creating Your Role
You and a partner will be assigned a role as a "stake-holer". Based on that description, you will create an identity (you can use your own name) of a person that would believe what the description says. Each parnter will be her/his own character; during the Town Meeting, you will work together to get your point of view across. You do not need to agree 100%, with your partner, but you should agree on fundamentals.
Use the following questions as a guide to creating your identity.
II: Preparing to Present Your Position (15 minutes)
You and your partner are to prepare a one-minute opening statement responding to the question, “Will the removal of the two dams on the Shawsheen River be a positive action for the Town of Andover?” One member of your group will give your statement at the beginning of the meeting.
In order to prepare your position, you should examine the documents posted to the Wiki and our textbook. You may flesh out the information you learned from these resources, and disagree with any opinions you find; you may not contradict any actual facts.
III: The Town Meeting (40 minutes)
Listen to each other’s opening statements; take notes on arguments or ideas that your character would particularly agree or disagree with.
After all of the opening statements have been made, the discussion will be open. Raise your hand and jump in! It is your job to convince others in the room of your point of view. Everybody in the group should speak at least once.
Statements or questions may be addressed to particular individuals in the class in response to either their opening statements or comments made during discussion (Example: “You said that you are in favor of the dam removal, but what about...”). It is acceptable to disagree with ideas expressed but it is not acceptable to attack the person who makes the statement or expresses the idea.
IV: The Comment period (10 minutes)
The Town Council will then have 2 minutes to ask relevant clarifying questions to aid in their decision making process. Each member of the council will ask a minimum of 2 questions. All member of the council will take notes during the presentation and during the comment period. At the end of all presentations, members of the Town Council will confer and discuss their opinion. They will then post their group decision to the Wiki by 7:45 the next day.
V: Town Council Presentation (10 minutes)
On day two the Town Council will present their decision based on the prior days discussion. All stakeholders will take notes as the council presents their opinion.
VI: The Vote (5 minutes)
At the end of the presentation, we’ll take a vote on the Council’s statement. The teacher will facilitate the vote. Students who agree with the Council’s opinion should raise their hands first. Students who do not agree with the Council’s opinion should raise their hands second. The majority of the votes will determine the decision.
V: After the Vote:
You will write an editorial to Andover Townsman or The Andover Patch newspapers, or another relevant newspaper. The editorial will express your position on the Council’s decision. You may or may not take the view of your assigned stakeholder. In your editorial, you should use specific evidence from the resources you were provided with and/or found on your own. You should also include why they chose to write to the newspaper they selected. These will be posted to the Wiki by class four.
Dam Removal Research
Stake-Holders
http://www.shawsheen.org/
http://www.mass.gov/dep/about/
http://www.interfluve.com/appliedriverrestoration
The luxurious environment of Atria Marland Place generates a retirement living community of elegance and sophistication. Gorgeous interior rooms work in tandem with beautiful landscaping to create a lovely assisted living setting superior to Massachusetts’ other independent living communities.
http://www.atriaseniorliving.com/atria-marland-place-andover-ma.aspx?CommunityNumber=10736
Biological assessments evaluate the condition of a water body using direct measurements of the resident biota in surface waters and integrate the cumulative impacts of chemical, physical, and biological stressors on aquatic life (see Using Biological Data as Indicators of Water Quality (PDF) (38pp, 237K, About PDF ).
http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/index.html
Town Council